Surviving Dracula’s Castle In Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow 2

At E3 we got a look at Dracula at the height of his power, but during a demo at Comic Con, we got to see him in a more frail state.

At the beginning of the game, players get to see Dracula at full strength, but at some point he goes to sleep for a thousand years and wakes up hungry and frail. Our demo of the game picks up at this point as Dracula is slowing rebuilding his abilities.

At this point in the game, Dracula has become trapped in his own castle. In fact, his castle has become absorbed by evil powers and is trying to keep him from leaving. After platforming across some chandeliers, Dracula catches sight of the void sword at the end of a hallway, a powerful weapon we saw in action at E3. Dracula needs to get to it. Unfortunately, blood starts running down the walls of the hallway causing the floor to collapse. This is the castle manifesting its powers and trying to prevent him from leaving. Dracula runs down the hall parkouring off the collapsing stones and working his way towards the void sword. Dynamic playforming sequences like this will be scattered throughout the game.

At E3 we saw the awesome power of the void sword in action, but Dracula won’t always be able to use this sword, he’ll need to attack enemies and absorb their blood to power his ability to use this incredibly powerful weapon.

Dracula will need to balance these tactics well, because the broken stone and floorboards begin to compile themselves into a stone golem. After absorbing enough blood while fighting the golem, Dracula activates his focus and whips out the void sword. Dracula then unleashes a few devastating attacks on the golem and performs a final quick time event to finish him off. The monster erupts into a shower of pebbles.

Dracula will be able to power up weapons like the void sword to help him explore his castle as well as aid him in combat. For example, Dracula can gain a gem that give his sword the ability to freeze objects. This ability is great for crowd control, as Dracula can freeze one enemy and then work on the others. We also watched Dracula flash freeze a waterfall and then climb up the frozen ice to reach a new area of the environment.

We’re big fans of the first Lords of Shadow, and it looks like the sequel is coming together nicely. We can't wait to get our mitts on all of Dracula’s powers and escape his castle when the game comes out later this winter.

For more on Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, check out our interview with producer David Cox.